This may not be a well-known fact about me, but I was actually raised on a farm in Wisconsin. My childhood was made up of the simple life--filled with animals, home cooked meals, summer picnics, and plenty of the outdoors.

As a kid, one of my favorite things to do happened during our springtime rainstorms. I loved to go out by our big tin shed and stand under the drain spout as water gushed down, soaking me from head to toe, inside and out. And my mother would inevitably shake her head at my squishy wet trail I left coming into the house.

But I loved the feel of the water on my head and how it almost seemed to take me to a different place. The roar of the water around my ears, with my eyes and lips pressed tightly closed, drowned out the world around me and left me alone with the single sensation of just being in that moment, in the rain, under the water.

The other day, a dear friend and mentor told me about how she'd been praying for God to open the windows of heaven in my life and on this journey to South Africa-and in an instant, the picture of me standing under that drain spout came bursting into my mind. I couldn't help but smile, and even get a little teary-eyed at the beautiful imagery God showed me in it.

You see, right now I'm standing under the window of heaven, being soaked head to toe in everything God is pouring out: Faith. Trust. Hope. Love. Provision. Wisdom. Belief. Preparedness. The world around me is crazy. Even my own life feels like an untamable whirlwind. But all that really matters, what takes precedence over all else, are the gifts of the Lord pouring out over my head.

In just a couple of months I'll be moving over a threshold from one part of my life into the next. And as I do so, I'll be making great big, messy, rain-soaked, footprints, full of the overflow of God with every step.